NHL Heritage Classic: The Big Freeze at BC Place

VANCOUVER — A crew of 200 is working around the clock transforming BC Place Stadium into a hockey arena for Sunday’s Vancouver Canucks-Ottawa Senators game in the NHL Heritage Classic.

Here are some interesting facts about the buildup to the game and the contest itself:

• The 53-foot, 300-ton capacity refrigeration unit, which sits inside a transport truck, pumps 3,000 gallons of glycol coolant into custom-made aluminum trays configured on the floor of the stadium. About 10,000 gallons of water are required to make a sheet of ice an inch thick. The surface being prepared at BC Place Stadium will be about two inches — slightly thicker than normal arena ice, which is about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches thick.

• After the ice is built to a thickness of one inch, the surface is whitened using approximately 350 gallons of water soluble paint. The lines and logos are then painted and placed on the surface, with more ice built on top to complete the work. Once constructed, monitoring the status of the ice is a 24-hour job. A high-tech system called Eye on the Ice is embedded in the surface to provide updates on temperatures at different areas of the ice. An alert prompts the need to pump more glycol in the system if the ice starts to become too soft. “We’re at the point now where everything’s built and we’re spraying (water),” explained ice maker Mike Craig. “Basically, we’re in pretty good shape.” The right chill for good ice is about 22 F. Colder than that, and it becomes too brittle.

• Although Heritage Classic tickets are showing up on Living Social and other secondary market sellers, Don Renzulli, the VP of facilities for the NHL, expects Sunday’s game to be sold out. Renzulli said Wednesday that about 90 per cent of available tickets have been sold. BC Place seats about 54,500, but some of the seats will be used for television production facilities so there is no “hard” number in terms of capacity. “Vancouver is consistent with other markets we’ve been to,” Renzulli said. “You tend to see big spikes (in ticket sales) in the last two-three weeks.”

• A decision on whether the roof at BC Place will be opened or closed for the sixth “outdoor” game on the NHL schedule will be made Sunday morning. Oddly enough, sun is more of a problem than snow. If glare from the louvered windows surrounding the stadium requires players to wear sunglasses, the windows may need to be shaded in some form. Light rain or a snow shower would still allow the game to be played with the roof opened. “We can play with the roof open and it’s snowing,” Renzulli said. “Absolutely.”

• Ice maker Mike Craig, an Alberta native who lives in Kelowna, sharpened his skills at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, but many tricks of the trade were learned from his dad, Dan Craig, known as the Ice Guru. Craig Sr. is the NHL’s senior director of facilities operations and is handling construction of the rink at Soldier Field in Chicago, where the Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins play Saturday. Despite a compressed time schedule, Mike Craig said the controlled conditions at BC Place make ice prep a breeze compared to other outdoor venues. “We can work around the clock,” he said. Tarps had to be placed over the rink at Soldier Field on Wednesday to keep the sun from warming the ice too much.

• The refrigeration trailer and hockey boards used for Sunday’s Heritage Classic were tested earlier this year and performed wonderfully. The refrigeration unit, built last summer, went to work for the first time at the Winter Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs on New Year’s Day. That game was played at the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich., where snow and cold were issues. The boards got their first workout at Dodger Stadium, when the Los Angeles Kings played the Anaheim Ducks as part of the Stadium Series. There, the threat of daylight sun was the biggest fear. “We’ve really learned how to deal with different types of environments,” explained ice maker Mike Craig. “The technology hasn’t changed. We’ve just learned how to use it better.”

• The NHL has held two Heritage Classics in Canada and five Winter Classics in the U.S. This season it is holding one of each, plus four games in the Stadium Series. Chicago (Saturday) and Vancouver (Sunday) complete the slate of six outdoors games in 2014. While outdoor games have lost some of their novelty continent wide, they are still popular in specific local markets. Saturday’s game between the Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins, for instance, sold out some time ago. The league has invested so much money in the project — two refrigeration trailers, two sets of boards, shipping containers and other equipment — that it’s a concept which likely will go on for some time. Ice maker Mike Craig has a crew of more than 200 working around the clock to get BC Place ready.

• No, it won’t be Nickelback. But the NHL will announce soon its between-periods entertainment on a specially constructed sound stage for Sunday’s Heritage Classic. “Probably, we’ll announce something in the next day or two,” explained Renzulli. “Typically, we won’t announce anything until we have a signed contract. But we’re just about to do that. It’ll be a ‘name’ talent.” Members of the ’94 Canucks Stanley Cup finalist team will be signing autographs outside BC Place and are included in the opening ceremonies. As well, eight members of Canada’s Olympic gold medal women’s hockey team in Sochi will be acknowledged Sunday.

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